Needed: Criminal investigation in Elizabeth

Star-LedgerRafael Fajardo, former president of the Elizabeth School Board

The foul odor in Elizabeth these days cannot be blamed on oil refineries along the Turnpike. It is from the ethical rot created by the city’s Board of Education.

Board members in Elizabeth routinely solicit political donations from teachers and other school employees. They are using the district’s 4,000 employees as their personal slush funds, building a heavy-handed political machine that is based on intimidation.

That is sleazy at a minimum. It becomes criminal if employees are coerced into giving money by the threat of punishment or the promise of reward. And that is exactly what employees of the district say is happening, as staff writer Ted Sherman reported in The Sunday Star-Ledger.

Several lawsuits making that charge have been quietly settled, with a convenient gag order attached. And several authoritative sources, including a former superintendent and a former principal, say that is precisely how the board does its business.

“If you don’t buy tickets, you are not promoted to jobs you may want,” said Frank Cuesta, the former principal, now a city councilman. “You are basically shut out of the system, no matter how competent you are.”

These are serious charges that merit a criminal investigation by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, or Attorney General Paula Dow, or both offices working in tandem.

Their challenge will be to prove the coercion. A wink and nod are not enough. Investigators need to explicitly link the district’s treatment of an employee with his or her response to the request for money.

It will come as no surprise if they find that smoking gun. Because judging by what we know of this board, its members have lost their ethical bearings entirely. The signs of this are familiar to anyone who follows New Jersey politics.

Nepotism is one symptom. Sherman found that at least 20 district employees are relatives of current or past board members.

The ringleader on this is Rafael Fajardo, a former board president who has six relatives on the payroll, including a sister who is a truant officer for preschool students, a job the state deemed pointless because preschoolers are not required to attend.

Soliciting money from firms that do business with the district is another classic symptom, and the Elizabeth board embraces that practice as well.

Fajardo won’t talk about any of this, and neither will most current board members. That, too, is a sign.

Time to find out what these people are hiding. And for that, we need criminal investigators to do their work.